Job   
Chapter

8:1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
8:2"How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
8:3Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
8:4When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
8:5But if you will look to God and plead with the Almighty,
8:6if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your rightful place.
8:7Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.
8:8"Ask the former generations and find out what their fathers learned,
8:9for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
8:10Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
8:11Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
8:12While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
8:13Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
8:14What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider's web.
8:15He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.
8:16He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
8:17it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
8:18But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, 'I never saw you.'
8:19Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.
8:20"Surely God does not reject a blameless man or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
8:21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
8:22Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more."
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